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Hitena VIVIX Eging Rod Testing

I've been using the Hitena VIVIX Eging rod for a bit over a month now and have continued to test it's capabilities. I've found that it casts very well even with light flicks because the tip of the rod barely moves even after casting. The sensitivity is also something I was quite amazed at, although some might complain about the handle not being cork, I found that it's solid enough to relay most of the little sensations, so it's fairly easy to know once your jig has hit the bottom. The action of the rod is very crisp and sharp so it has a very stiff action which is great for use on the rocks when you cast out far, however, if the location you're fishing is quite deep, It probably won't make much of a difference.

Although I've used it for a while now, unfortunately I haven't had the chance to test the strength out yet... UNTIL TODAY!

A team of Tony, Tony's mate and I went to Lurline Bay Maroubra for a quick session of Eging on Sunday night of the Easter Weekends. Once we arrived, we were surprised to see only a team of 2 people on the concrete area, leaving the entire upper section to ourselves. Excited, we started rigging up quickly and went for a quick few casts. It was quiet for the first hour or so, so Tony decided he would try fishing down past the concrete area because the team on the concrete area had cleared out. After they left, we noticed another Team that was fishing further in, now retreating, we asked if they caught anything and they showed us 2 good size squid, roughly 30cm each.

We kept casting out a little towards the left and suddenly we got a nice hook up to a decent squid! It initially peeled a bit of drag but quickly came to a halt, as I continued to drag the squid in, I realised it wasn't as big as I initially thought. We landed the squid and it was a decent 25cm.

After changing to the Red Tape Egi Oh Q Live AU12, I managed to get a pretty solid cast and let it sink to the bottom, once it hit the bottom, I felt a slight tug which i thought was seaweed but as I kept pulling, I could feel it slowly coming in when suddenly it started peeling drag in short little pulses. I realised that it was a cuttleifish and continued to slowly bring it in, after a good 5 minutes of what felt like dragging a massive pile of seaweed, it finally surfaced and we could see the monster while aiming out headlights at it.

We managed to bring it up to the front, got the aluminium 3 piece net ready and attempted to net the beast, we tried once, but it dove right out as soon as it entered. The second attempt ended up in success and as soon as my squid jig fell out, it entered the net! However, Tony's mate was having trouble lifting it up so I quickly went over and did what I could to help him lift it but all of a sudden there was no weight, we looked at the water and aluminium net frame, the 1st section and the cuttlefish were all there. Confused and shocked we just continued to stare at the mess that was in the water before trying to fetch it with a heavier set up. Our effort was in vain and after about a minute, the cuttlefish along with the net had already gone out of sight.

After giving up on trying to fetch the net frame back, I decided to go for "one last cast". I threw it roughly in the same direction as my previous cast and let it sink and stay as I did the last time, I tried pulling and I had the exact same sensation as before, I felt something heavy hooked onto the jig except this time it didn't pulse at all. Thinking that it was probably seaweed, I dragged it all the way to the front, only to realise that it was another cuttlefish but around half the size of the previous one. By this time Tony came back and asked for the net which was now nothing more than an aluminium stick. Tony told us that we had 2 options, we could give it a lot of line and save the jig but lose the cuttlefish, or we could try to manoeuvre it across the concrete area, towards where Tony was fishing because then we would be able to fetch it with our hands.

Tony took control here and managed to skilfully manoeuvre the cuttlefish all the way across to the shallow area. Once it came all the way in, we quickly scooped it up and out of the water.

Cheers man, we gave it away to Tony's mate since it's the biggest hassle to prep with all that thick and slimy skin . I've had it boiled and dipped in Korean chilli paste before and it's pretty good if cooked right, other times it's like chewing a leather boot